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Savannah City Council violates public meeting law

Members of the Savannah City Council met in a hastily called meeting Sunday afternoon — with no advance public notice — to discuss a violent August incident in Ellis Square.

That meeting violated the state’s Open Meetings law, according to David Hudson, legal counsel for the First Amendment Foundation.

Though the email calling the meeting was sent by City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney, Mayor Edna Jackson on Tuesday took full responsibility. Savannah-Chatham police Chief Willie Lovett called her, she said, because he wanted council to view video of an Aug. 25 fight at Ellis Square that was being reported worldwide as a hate crime.

Watch the video on the left.

She instructed the chief, she said, to alert council. Lovett contacted the city manager, who sent the email about two hours before the meeting.

Though all council members were invited, only five attended. That is still a majority of council. Because the invitation was extended to all members, a public notice should have been issued. The city manager copied the public information office, her deputy assistant and her two assistant city managers but did not copy the Clerk of Council’s Office, which normally initiates public meetings notices.

“When a quorum meets by prior arrangement to discuss or receive information about a public matter, it is a meeting under the law and to be lawful must be preceded by notice and the public admitted,” Hudson wrote in an email Tuesday.

The mayor did not attend because she was out of town, but she disagreed that a meeting was held.

“It wasn’t a meeting,” she said. “It was just to view a tape.

“Surely there was nothing done to defy any laws.”

The other members of council to attend were Aldermen Tony Thomas and John Hall and Alderwomen Carol Bell, Mary Osborne and Estella Shabazz. Mayor Pro Tem Van Johnson was out of town, and Alderman Tom Bordeaux did not see the email about the meeting before it occurred. Alderwoman Mary Ellen Sprague said she saw the email but was unable to attend.

The email was sent at 12:02 p.m. The meeting was held at 2 p.m.

Other council members, at least initially, had the same thought as the mayor.

“I viewed it as a briefing,” Bell said. “We were only there a few minutes. After they played the video, we disbanded and left.”

Bell, a first-term council member, hadn’t seen the email but got a call about 15 minutes before the meeting to summon her to police headquarters.

That left her little time to think about whether proper public notice had been given.

“I believe that was an oversight,” she said. “I really did not view it as a called meeting of council ... I guess I’m going to have to become more sensitive to this.”

Hall also had not seen the email but learned of the meeting when Shabazz asked whether he was going. Hall is a first-term Savannah council member, but has previous experience on the Thunderbolt Town Council. He arrived almost 20 minutes late and said he wasn’t thinking about whether it was a public meeting.

Hall said the brief discussion that was held could have been done in front of the public.

Lovett said he preferred to do the briefing in private because the incident is part of an ongoing police investigation.

Lovett also contacted County Manager Russ Abolt. He was the only county official to attend. Abolt said he invited County Chairman Pete Liakakis, who could not attend, but did not invite the entire commission.

Lovett wanted city and county officials to see the video and understand that what actually happened “was not even remotely close” to what had been reported on television, he said.

International news reports carried the local TV reports and portrayed the fight as a hate crime. City officials feared it characterized Savannah as a racially intolerant city.

Video clips of the fight were released later Sunday to the media.

PUBLIC RECORDS ISSUES

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens has offered clear instruction to the City Council about public meetings and public records issues.

In 2011, his office determined that Savannah officials three times had violated Open Meetings Law. He cautioned them about providing insufficient notice to public meetings and workshops and instructed that even when an emergency meeting is necessary, compliance with the law can be achieved by calling members of the media.

The Savannah Morning News received no such call.

Olens also warned council not to use email or smaller meetings to try to circumvent public meetings requirements.

During a Friday special meeting of council, the city manager reminded council that because some topics might be “legally sensitive,” she was hesitant to put things in writing and preferred instead to meet individually with each member of council.

Andrew Quade of a West 31st Street address was hospitalized after the incident, said Julian Miller, police spokesman.

Videos show Quade talking with his girlfriend, who is black, when a group of black men walk by about 30 feet away, with one apparently making a comment. The video shows Quade, who is white, in a conversation with the men as he walked toward them across one of the large planters in the square. He approaches the men, steps back to take off his watch and again walks toward the men.

A second video shows Quade again confronting the group of men in the crowded square, a black man apparently attempting to quell the confrontation and Quade fighting with at least one participant of the group. Other members of the group then join in.

Multiple attempts by police to contact Quade for an interview have been unsuccessful, Miller said.

Anyone who witnessed the incident or participated is asked to call SCMPD Violent Crimes Detective Alan Sammons at 912-651-6728 or Crimestoppers at 912-234-2020. Tipsters remain anonymous and may qualify for a cash reward.